Pakistan (Commonwealth Union)_ Pakistan is in the midst of an economic and political crisis that appears to pose Islamabad with new challenges every day. As a result of rising inflation and a depreciating rupee, the nation is experiencing an unprecedented crisis. Accordingly, one such challenge is the unemployment rate among professional graduates, including doctors, engineers, and other professionals in the fields of computer science and agriculture. According to a recently published study, the unemployment rate for educated adolescents is 31 percent, while it is 51 percent for women.
According to the survey performed by Henna Ahsan and Muhammad Jehangir Khan of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), the likelihood of unemployment in Pakistan increases with education level. A cash-strapped economy accompanied by a weak labor market and low exports that are unable to handle a rapidly increasing number of educated workers has resulted in a high graduate unemployment rate in the country.
With the employment data from 2001-2002 to 2020-2021, the study found that the unemployment rate for graduates was 16.1%; for engineering, it was 23.5%; for agriculture, it was 29.4%; and for medicine, it was 10.2%. In 2020-2021, the full unemployment rate was 16.1 percent. The study also revealed that the disparity between the overall unemployment rate (6.3%) and the unemployment rate among graduates (16.1%) is nearly 10%.
According to the study, the graduate unemployment rate climbed from 14 percent to 16 percent between 2018-2019 and 2020-2021. However, when the unemployment rate was broken down into sub-disciplines, a darker picture emerged. The unemployment rate for engineers has doubled in just two years, from 11 percent to 23.5 percent. Additionally, a similar condition was observed for computer science and agriculture graduates. The medical field’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed by 68 percent in just two years.
According to the survey, the increase in unemployment is due to the misalignment between supply and demand, which has resulted in the unemployment of recent college graduates. It was also stated that the unemployment rate for natural sciences graduates is rising as enrollment in the field exceeds labor market demand. According to the study, “The gap between supply and demand is wider for graduates in the natural sciences as compared to the social sciences and management sciences. Therefore, to address graduate unemployment, there is a need to look at the unemployment issue by field of study in the country”.
According to the survey, unemployment could be widely observed across Pakistani provinces, with variations in sector-wise data. The study also reported that unemployment remains prevalent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, and other provinces. The report added, “Surprisingly, graduates in agriculture also suffer from a high unemployment rate in Sindh and Punjab, as these provinces, despite being rich in agriculture, may not be offering ample opportunities for highly educated agriculturists.”
According to the predictions of Hafiz A. Pasha, a renowned economist, the number of unemployed individuals in Pakistan will increase by more than 20 to 80 lakh by the end of 2022-2023. He stated that the unemployment rate would likely reach 10 percent for the first time. This month, Pakistan reported the highest year-over-year inflation in nearly five decades, at 35.37 percent. Further, the country’s economy is on the verge of collapse due to years of financial negligence and political instability, aggravated by a global energy crisis and catastrophic floods that inundated a third of the country last year. The country’s existing debt requires billions of dollars in financing, but foreign exchange reserves have diminished and the rupee is in freefall.
